Defining America through Immigration Policy

Defining America through Immigration Policy. By Bill Ong Hing. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. xii, 324 pp. Cloth, $69.50, ISBN 1-59213-232-4. Paper, $26.95, ISBN 1-59213-233-2.)

This book provides a provocative and timely analysis of how the evolution of U.S. immigration policy reflects an enduring struggle over who ought to be embraced into full membership in the social, economic, and political life of the nation. Bill Ong Hing argues that the history of American immigration policy formation and implementation exemplifies a tension between a broad vision of nationhood that welcomes diverse newcomers and a narrow vision that "idealized the true American as white, Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking, and Christian" (p. 5). However, it is the latter nativist tradition and its substantial impact on policy outcomes and on immigrant experiences that most animates Defining America through Immigration Policy.

This book contends that...